Random driver drug tests on the way

Truck drivers and rave partygoers will be prime targets of random roadside drug testing soon to be introduced in Victoria.

14 September 2003PeLucy Beaumont

The technology, which relies on a saliva test detecting cannabis and methamphetamines, could make Victoria the world's first jurisdiction with random roadside testing similar to booze buses, authorities said.

The announcement came as revised guidelines on assessing a patient's fitness to drive were mailed to GPs nationwide.

Revealing the technology yesterday, Police Minister Andre Haermeyer said it used a device containing an antibody that reacted to drug traces in saliva.

Within one to three minutes of a driver chewing on a swab, a digital display would tell police whether the driver had taken drugs recently. Laboratory confirmation would follow a positive reading.

Up to 30 percent of drivers killed on the road had tested positive to drugs other than alcohol, Mr Haermeyer said.

More than 200 drivers were picked up last year with existing drug tests.

Authorities could not confirm whether there would be a discretionary level of drugs permissible, as with the .05 blood alcohol level.

Mr Haermeyer said that legislation would be introduced to Parliament this year, with roadside testing in place early next year.

"This is a breakthrough initiative very much in the same vein as roadside random alcohol testing when we first did that," Mr Haermeyer said. "Initially, we will snare a significant number of people but as the message gets out there people will take a lot more care."

Acting Assistant Commissioner Bob Hastings said that police would target areas and industries where they believed drug abuse was high.

"The heavy transport industry is one of the industries that regularly comes under criticism ... We also have large rave-type dances around the city where these sorts of substances are taken," he said.

The new device could detect opiates such as heroin, but authorities said more work was needed to distinguish it from medicines, including codeine, which have a similar chemical make-up.

"These drugs are still quite impairing, whether they are under prescription or not," Mr Haermeyer said. "We have a major education campaign to undertake."

The new National Road Transport Commission advice to GPs brings commercial and private driver guidelines together for the first time and helps doctors identify patients who might be unsafe on the roads.

The commission said that impaired driver perception, judgement, response time and physical capability needed to be managed using up-to-date medical knowledge.

Commission project manager Bruce Hocking said that doctors should not be seen as policing road safety.

"There is no intent to get doctors to dob in patients," Dr Hocking said.

In Victoria, drivers are obliged to notify licensing authorities if they develop a condition that affects their driving.

He said some conditions had been reviewed in light of medical advances.

"The standards have been framed to take advantage of increasingly effective medication," Dr Hocking said.

The guidelines are available online at www.austroads.com.au

Drivers on speed slower to respond

By Ben Wyld smh.com.au Amphetamine users behind the wheel are more likely to run red lights, fail to signal correctly, and have slower reaction times.

And on-road risk-taking behaviour is heightened during the day, when affected drivers are more likely to experience drug-induced tunnel vision, according to researchers at Melbourne's Swinburne University.

They say standard sobriety tests, or field tests, used by police in some states are only 10 percent accurate in detecting those drivers affected by the drug.

Katherine Papafotiou, of the university's drug and driving unit, said 10 female and 10 male "recreational" amphetamine users volunteered for the four-month trial.

Over two sessions they were given either a small dose of the prescription medication dexamphetamine, or a placebo capsule containing flour.

They then got behind the wheel of a driving simulator after a two-hour wait for amphetamine levels to peak in the blood.

Dr Papafotiou said the researchers found increased signalling errors, failures to stop at red lights and delays in reaction times ? particularly during day-time driving.

"The impaired driving and failure to stop at red traffic lights we are attributing to tunnel vision, where the individual focuses their attention on one aspect of the driving task and fails to respond to other stimuli in their peripheral vision," she said.

The darkness of night acts to block peripheral vision so that fewer objects are competing for attention, she said.

The study revealed sobriety tests used by the Victorian Police Force, such as the "walk and turn", and "one-leg stand", were only 10 percent accurate in predicting impaired driving ability in relation to amphetamine use.

This contrasted with earlier studies, where sobriety tests were found to be an accurate indicator for those affected by marijuana.

But like the earlier study, saliva testing accurately detected the presence of drugs. The researchers found the screening device Cozart RapiScan was 98 per cent accurate in detecting those positive for dexamphetamine.

However, the development of an accurate roadside saliva test for all classes of drugs is some time away and sobriety tests should not be dismissed, Dr Papafotiou said.

"It's a process of elimination . . . it might be that you need both results together to attribute the impairment being observed to the drug detected in the blood."

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The size of your tyre is located on the sidewall of your tyre.It will be similar to the sample below.